Krisiun / Malevolent Creation / Vital Remains / Karnak

Italy's Karnak take the stage with an expression of brutality. Their brand of death metal is fairly orthodox with a moment of technicality and a focus on rhythm. The quartet’s stage presence consists solely of headbanging and over time, the music becomes too repetitive and unimaginative to sustain attention. Although the crowd is well populated, their attention notably wanes too.

But the venue solidly packs itself out for Vital Remains who last played London five years ago, supporting their solid 'Icons of Evil' record. Now with vocalist Scott Wily replacing the infamous Glen Benton of Deicide fame and the impressive Dave Suzuki no longer handling any instruments, the revamped line up manage to hold their own and command a firm stage presence with blastbeats and tremolo-pickling aplenty next to dual guitar leads and winding melodies. The audience reaction is particularly encouraging, straight from the onset as the US death metallers open their set of anti-religious fury with the track 'Icons of Evil'. Unsurprisingly, the setlist pulls its material from Vital Remain's last two full-length efforts – 'Dechristianize' and the aforementioned 'Icons of Evil', with anthems including 'Devoured Elysium', 'Hammer Down the Nails' and 'Saviour To None... Failure to All'. Mosh pits and crowd surfers are included with this set of mayhem undaunted by death metal songs clocking in at seven minutes. The set feels all too brief closer 'Dechristianize' is battered out but the fans have certainly enjoyed the performance and the show must go on.

Malevolent Creation are a power house in US death metal, beginning life in 1987 and releasing albums consistently without a break-up and reformation. Needless to say, the Underworld is jam-packed with attendees salivating to hear the malignant old school death metal Malevolent Creation have in their inventory tonight. The setlist is one to particularly appease those interested in the classic albums of Malevolent Creation, including 'The Ten Commandments' and 'Retribution'. From these releases, prime cuts include 'Multiple Stabwounds', 'Remnants of Withered Decay', 'Eve of Apocalypse', 'Coronation of Our Domain' and 'Slaughter of Innocence'. However, last year saw Malevolent Creation release their eleventh album, 'Invidious Dominion', and this release is not neglected live with 'Slaughterhouse' being a particularly memorable performance. Vocalist Brett Hoffman has a wealth of energy and a charisma unique to death metal vocalists. The audience is as frenetic as the music and the band know they are hitting the spot. The closing number is not a surprise as the Americans unleash their eponymous song 'Malevolent Creation' on London with a final surge of violence in the sweaty congregation. This is certainly a performance to be proud of.

By the time Brazil's own Krisiun take the stage, it appears the audience look somewhat exhausted (or possibly too drunk) with a distinct lack of enthusiasm shown compared to that of Vital Remains and Malevolent Creation. With just three members, the brothers look a little dwarfed on stage and their presence is vague and bare compared to the previous act. Nonetheless, they begin to bludgeon through thick death metal with a particularly brutal edge without entering the sub-subgenre of brutal death metal. The drumming is consistently intense and the guitar work is razor sharp. Alex Carmago comes across as sincere in his between-song banter, at one point even asking the audience to hook the band up with weed after the show. The setlist features 'Kings of Killing', 'Combustion Inferno', 'Bloodcraft' and new numbers such as 'Descending Abomination' and 'The Will to Potency' of the new 'The Great Execution' release.

However, given the expanse of their discography, the trio of brutality have barely changed their sound much, which makes the show lag a little in the middle. The audience quite noticeably thins down too, suggesting Krisiun are not as exciting to watch as Malevolent Creation or even Vital Remains. But these Brazilian titans have their loyal fans, evident by the calls for closing number 'Black Force Domain', which Carmago gets the audience to chant repeatedly before launching head first into the aural assault. The crowd are satisfied with the ending but it appears Krisiun had the mammoth task of attempting to upstage Malevolent Creation and Vital Remains, which it is safe to say they did not quite achieve tonight. Yet their performance was a solid full stop to a night of premiere death metal.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.